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July 13 (UPI) -- The national board of directors of Hollywood's actors union voted Thursday to go on strike after they failed to reach an agreement with studios over pay and other issues. The strike, to start at midnight, puts some 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists off the job, joining Writers Guild of America members who have been on strike for about two months over similar issues.
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The cast of Oppenheimer promptly left the movie's premiere in London after Thursday's vote.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announced the decision to strike, with picketing to begin Friday.
At a press conference, they said they'd hoped to avoid a strike, but the deal offered by the AMPTP made it necessary.
"We are being victimized by a very greedy entity," Drescher said. "How they plead poverty, that they're losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs, it is disgusting.
"Shame on them," Drescher continued. "They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment."
The AMPTP said in a press release that the union rejected a groundbreaking AI proposal. Crabtree-Ireland said the proposal still gave corporations too much ownership of individual actors' likenesses.
"They proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day's pay and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation," Crabtree-Ireland said.
Crabtree-Ireland said another sticking point was AMPTP's refusal to increase minimum payments to compensate for inflation, adding that inflation will only widen the gap by the expiration of the proposed contract in 2026.
"We believe that our members should not be working in 2023 for less money in real dollars than they made in 2020," Crabtree-Ireland said. "We certainly believe that our members should not be working at the end of the term of this contract, in 2026, for less money than they made in real dollars in 2020."
As for the anticipated duration of the strike, Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland indicated they would return to talks as soon as the AMPTP wants to have good-faith discussions.
"We're open to talking to them tonight," Drescher said.
Crabtree-Ireland expects a long strike.
Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland acknowledged the effects the strike would have for other businesses in the Los Angeles economy, as companies who serve Hollywood productions will lose work.
But they said that if they didn't put their foot down, the economy would only get worse for all businesses as corporations continue to squeeze workers.
"When an employer, especially these big multinational corporations, wants to take advantage of you, wants to use their power to squash you under their heel, it is your right and obligation to stand up to them," Crabtree-Ireland said.
The union's contracts expired late Wednesday and the organization's negotiating committee voted unanimously to recommend the strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The work stoppage will affect Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros. Discovery and other studios and networks.
"This is the union's choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses, and more," AMPTP said in a statement.
"SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods."
A Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service representative took part in the negotiations in its final hours, to no avail.
The strike is the first for the union since 1980. As a result, scripted TV and film productions employing union members will shut down around the world.
SAG-AFTRA has said it is demanding "economic fairness, residuals, regulating the use of artificial intelligence and alleviating the burdens of the industry-wide shift to self-taping" auditions.
The use of artificial intelligence is a top concern for performers.
"Artificial intelligence has already proven to be a real and immediate threat to the work of our members and can mimic members' voices, likenesses and performances," the union has said.
The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for about two months over similar issues.
This will be the first time both unions simultaneously stopped work since 1960.
